Beijing (ZXZC)- Monthly deliveries of NIO, Li Auto and Xpeng recorded three-digit or even four-digit year-on-year growth in February. 

Last month, NIO remained the most popular brand among three startups with deliveries more than the total of the other two companies. And its month-on-month decrease was also the smallest while monthly deliveries of Li Auto and Xpeng were more than halved when compared with those of January.

Sales are always low in February. According to the China Passenger Car Association, last month, only the first 6 days’ average retail sales managed to see slight increase compared with those of January and the daily retail sales of the entire month decreased 44% month on month.

Yanan Shen, president of Li Auto, attributed the delivery performance to seasonal factors related to the Chinese New Year holiday, as well as the localized COVID-19 outbreaks in northern China. Xpeng also said the first quarter is often the low season and it didn’t deliver vehicles during the Chinese New Year holiday. Thanks to the retooling of its Zhaoqing plant in Februray, Xpeng has been well prepared for ramping up production and expects its deliveries will rebound in March.

Yanan Shen is also confident of Li Auto’s growth momentum going forward. His company expects the deliveries in the first quarter will be between 10,500 and 11,500 vehicles, representing an increasing of 262.6 to 297.1% from the same period of last year. NIO predicted its current quarter deliveries will be in the range from 20,000 and 20,500 units, soaring approximately 421% to 434% compared with the same quarter of 2020.

Even though local market is still their primary focus, the three Chinese EV startups are also stepping up efforts for overseas market. By the end of February, Xpeng has shipped two batches of vehicles, a total of 309 G3s to Norway. The Guangzhou-based automaker is confident of strengthening its presence in European markets where demands for smart electric vehicles are increasing as a result of policy support.

NIO will start its sales and service in Europe this year and Norway may be the first destination for the startup. In December, 2020, Marius Klixbüll Iversen, former Senior Regional Service Manager, Northern EMEA, Iceland and Middle East at Tesla, joined NIO as the head of Service Operations Europe, according to his LinkedIn information.

As to the U.S. market, William Li, NIO’s founder and CEO, said at the latest earnings call that the company has kicked off the research about the U.S. market entry at a very early stage and has been exploring the possibility in business models, strategies, and different approaches. But it is a long way to go and the company would like to achieve the target step by step.

Li Auto is ambitious to become NO.1 player in the global smart electric vehicle market, so it will definitely enter into overseas market to compete with other players. Yanan Shen revealed on an earnings call that Li Auto will continue the efforts for overseas market and initiate product planning and sales channels this year, including establishing overseas offices.